Related Field
The present invention relates to a dispenser interface for electronic dispensers, methods and systems related to the dispenser interface, dispensers employing the dispenser interface, and methods and systems related to dispensers employing the dispenser interface.
Description of Related Art
Dispensers are well known for dispensing various products. For example, automated dispensers for dispensing consumable products to consumers have become popular in the industry. The consumable products may include liquid or foam soap, sanitizer (e.g., gel or alcohol sanitizer), paper or other towels, tissue, napkins, film, plastic cutlery, wipers, nonwoven items, sheet products, and the like.
In various contexts it may be helpful to electronically interface with an electronic dispenser. For example, in a healthcare, food preparation, or other situation, it might be beneficial to track use of soap and hand sanitizer dispensers to ensure hand hygiene practices are in line with the appropriate protocols. In various applications, the usage of a dispenser may be tracked to determine when the dispenser needs to be refilled with product to be dispensed or when a battery within the dispenser is nearing the end of its life (e.g., in embodiments wherein power supply 120 comprises a battery or set of batteries). The dispensers typically include an electronic dispenser board that can serve various functions, including causing the dispenser to dispense product and log the amount of product dispensed. To track use of one or more dispensers may require that an external system be able to communicate with each of the dispensers. However, dispensers generally don't include standardized components providing for communicating with the external system. Additionally, dispensers come in a variety of unique configurations such that, depending on the type and number of dispensers to be interfaced with, this may be a difficult, inefficient, and labor intensive process.
One approach for interfacing with a dispenser is to provide a daughter card in communication with the main dispenser board of the dispenser. The daughter card is typically mounted in or on the dispenser, and can be programmed to provide advanced features for the dispenser, including providing for communication between the main dispenser board and external systems. Thus, dispensers of one type can be manufactured by one company with a main dispenser board providing basic functions such as dispensing and dispense logging, and then some of these dispensers can be made more advanced or otherwise customized by the same or a different company. This is accomplished by adding specialized daughter cards. However, to date such arrangements have required a multitude of customized hardware and software configurations so as to facilitate communication between a variety of main dispenser boards and associated daughter cards, resulting in inefficiencies of scale for daughter card manufacturers and suppliers.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved, efficient dispenser interface and associated methods, apparatuses, and systems. In addition, a need exists for a dispenser interface that advantageously allows for a wide variety of main dispenser boards to communicate easily with other systems, such as one or more daughter cards provided on the dispenser and external systems.